{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}} {{Infobox magazine | title = The Nelson Lee Library | image_file = Nelson Lee Library 001.jpg | image_size = 220px | image_caption = Cover ''The Nelson Lee Library'' #1 from 1915 | editor = | editor_title = Editor | previous_editor = | staff_writer = | frequency = Weekly | total_circulation = | circulation_year = 1915 | category = Story paper | company = Amalgamated Press | publisher = | firstdate = {{Start date and age|1915}} | country = United Kingdom | based = London | lastdate = {{End date|1933}} | language = English | website = | issn = }} '''''The Nelson Lee Library''''' was a story paper of the first third of the 20th century, published by Amalgamated Press. It featured the adventures of private detective Nelson Lee and his boy assistant Nipper.
==Overview== Nelson Lee was created by John William Staniforth, writing under the name Maxwell Scott, in 1894. Lee made his debut in ''A Dead Man’s Secret'' in The Halfpenny Marvel #46. The detective was an immediate sensation and continued to feature in many of the Amalgamated Press papers over the next twenty years.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |author=Andrew, Lucy |title=The Boy Detective in Early British Children's Literature, Chapter 4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DlM7DwAAQBAJ&dq=nelson+lee+maxwell+scott&pg=PA95 |publisher=Springer |date=2017|page=95}}</ref> In 1915 the Amalgamated Press acquired the exclusive right to use the name Nelson Lee from Staniforth for £50. That same year it launched ''The Nelson Lee Library'', a weekly paper devoted to stories about Nelson Lee and Nipper. Despite wartime restrictions, the paper achieved a circulation of 70,000 within its first three months.<ref>{{cite news |author=Wood, John P. |title=Leaves from the Diary of Maxwell Scott, Part 6 |publisher=Collectors Digest Vol3 #32 |date=August 1949 |page=213}}</ref>
The first issue of ''The Nelson Lee Library'' was published on 12 June 1915, entitled ''The Mystery of Limehouse Reach'' and written by Sexton Blake writer A. C. Murray. Many other popular Blake writers would pen Lee tales including William Murray Graydon, William J. Bayfield, George Hamilton Teed, Norman Goddard, and Edwy Searles Brooks.
Series 1 ran from 12 June 1915 until 24 April 1926, a total of 568 issues.
Series 2 ran from 1 May 1926 until 18 January 1930, a total of 194 issues.
Series 3 ran from 25 January 1930 until 18 February 1933, a total of 161 issues.
Series 4 ran from 25 February 1933 until 12 August 1933. ''The Nelson Lee Library'' then merged with ''The Gem''.
== A few issues of note== Maxwell Scott wrote just four adventures for the paper that bore his greatest creation's name, ''A Miscarriage of Justice'' (1915), ''The Convict's Dilemma'' (1915), ''In Borrowed Plumes'' (1915), and ''When Rogues Fall Out'' (1916).
''The Spendthrift'' was George Hamilton Teed's first Nelson Lee tale. It was followed by ''Twenty Fathoms Deep'' Edwy Searles Brooks debut Lee tale. right|thumb|279x279px|Night Hawk in Nelson Lee No. 57, February 21, 1931
Teed following on the success of his Sexton Blake creation Yvonne Cartier, gave Nelson Lee his first female foe: The Black Wolf, a cross-dressing martial arts aristocrat. She would match wits with Lee and Nipper in various locations around the world.<ref>{{cite news |author=Wood, Jack |title=A Dead Man's Secret: Nelson Lee in Fact and Fiction |publisher=Collectors Digest Christmas Annual #008 |date=1954 |page=39-40}}</ref>
Not to be outdone, Brooks introduced Eileen Dare the female detective in ''Nelson Lee's Lady Assistant'' (1916).<ref>{{cite news |author=Caldicott, Mark |title=Nelson Lee Column: Into His Stride |publisher=Collectors Digest Vol46 #542 |date=February 1992 |page=6}}</ref> She appeared with Lee in 14 adventures.
Brooks was instrumental in launching the second phase of Lee's career. In "Nipper at St. Frank's" (''Nelson Lee Library'' #112, 28 July 1917,) Lee and Nipper while fleeing from a Chinese Triad hide out at St. Frank's, a "venerable public school" in the Bellton area of Sussex. When the case at last was solved, Lee joined the faculty as headmaster and Nipper enrolled as a student. The two remained there for the next sixteen years solving mysteries and having adventures around the world, often with friends and Nipper's classmates.<ref name=":0"/>
{{anchor|Night Hawk}}John James Brearley Garbutt introduced Night Hawk, a superhero that began appearing as a backup feature in ''The Nelson Lee Library'' (New Series) No. 11, April 5, 1930 in a self-titled story. The hero was rich scientist Thurston Kyle who built an armored, winged flying suit to fight crime. He is considered one of the earliest examples of a flying armored superhero.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Chris |title=The British Superhero |date=2017 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=9781496807403 |page=41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pBWSDgAAQBAJ&dq=%22Night+Hawk%22+%22Nelson+Lee%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA41 |access-date=17 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Grand |first1=Alex |title=Understanding Superhero Comic Books: A History of Key Elements, Creators, Events and Controversies |date=2023 |publisher=McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers |isbn=9781476690391 |page=65 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U3XCEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Night+Hawk%22+%22Nelson+Lee%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA65 |access-date=17 May 2024}}</ref>
=== Howard Baker Collections === * The Barring-Out at St. Frank's! by Edwy Searles Brooks * Expelled Incorporating The Secret Societies of St. Frank's & The 'Death' of Walter Church by Edwy Searles Brooks * The Haunted School Incorporating the entire Ezra Quirke series by Edwy Searles Brooks
=== New Collections === * Nelson Lee: The Black Wolf Files (2020) by George Hamilton Teed
==Further reading== * [https://books.google.com/books?id=QKP3Fbk8hXQC&dq=boys+will+be+boys+nelson+lee&pg=PT131 Turner, ES (1948) Boys Will be Boys History of British boys' weeklies from Victorian times up to the 1950s.] * [https://books.google.com/books?id=6EhBDgAAQBAJ&dq=nelson+lee+maxwell+scott&pg=PT330 Watt & Green (2017) The Alternative Sherlock Holmes: Pastiches, Parodies and Copies]
==References== {{Reflist}} {{Portal|Children and Young Adult Literature}}
==External links== * [https://www.friardale.co.uk/Nelson%20Lee/Nelson%20Lee.htm The Nelson Lee Library at the Friardale Website] * [https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=780 Issues of ''The Nelson Lee Library'' at ComicBooksPlus] * [http://www.edwysearlesbrooks.com/nelson-lee.html Nelson Lee stories by Edwy Searles Brooks] * [http://www.greyfriarsindex.co.uk/St_Franks/NLL/NelsonLee.htm Nelson Lee and St. Frank's School] * {{ISFDB series|id=26906}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson Lee Library, The}} Category:1915 establishments in the United Kingdom Category:1933 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Category:British boys' story papers Category:Children's magazines published in the United Kingdom Category:Defunct literary magazines published in the United Kingdom Category:Magazines established in 1915 Category:Magazines disestablished in 1933